TerrorCards: Reign Of The Entity
by dscore20
Summary: In the distant future, a new VR game called TerrorCards has been released. It is the perfect card game for all horror fans, until one unfortunate player discovers a dark secret about the digital world that threatens to cause real-world harm...
1. Episode 1: Digital World

Several dozen years ago, the first video game was released. It was a crappy black-and-white ping-pong game. However, pitiful as it was, it was the greatest step in the new age. Do you wonder how videogames are made? Coding, slightly. Programming, barely. But how does it actually put the effects onto your screen? When consoles were first introduced, humans had created an artificial god. It has many forms, and goes by many names. The Gamemaster (or GM for short), the AI, the CPU. The Entity was born. The Entity was a kind of magic, bringing joy and anger-outlets to the lives of everyday people. However, this power had a dark side. An evil force that drove The Entity into a more...dark era of the digital world. Games like _Grand Theft Auto_ were just the beginning. The more The Entity embraced its evil side, the more it was loved, and the more it dared to journey deeper into a darker gaming age. Today, the year is 2050, and the newest virtual reality game is about to come out. Don't worry, it's nothing like _Sword Art Online_. There have been hundreds of VR games before, all which had no problems, and almost all were much beloved. It was a game called "TerrorCards", a game with every horrifying creature you can imagine from any form of media. From _Doctor Who_ 's weeping angel, to the xenomorphs from _Aliens_ , and even the crappiest creepypastas, all melded into a form of card game in a virtual world. This is where our adventure begins, with a random gamer nerd biking down to his favorite _GameStop_.

His name is Devin. He looked to be in middle school, event though he was a highschool Softmore. He wears a leather jacket, and black sweatpants with a red vertical stripe going along the side of them. He also has thick glasses, on a face covered by pimples. His hair is buzzcut, as close as possible to bald while still having hair.

He pedals down the sidewalk, rocks crunching under his wheels. He's sweating, thinking _Why did we have to live so far away?_ Devin barely stops in time for a car to pass when he gets to the road. It honks at him, as his tires screech to a halt.

He screams "Sorry!" as the car passes him.

"Careful, jackass!" The angry driver shouts at him through their open window, the song _My House_ blasting through their radio. Devin sat there, waiting for the traffic light to turn green. He pulls out his phone and earbuds, and turns on _Pandora_ , while jamming the earbuds into his ear. After clicking skip on several songs, he looked up to see the light on the other side of the street turn from green to yellow. Meaning the street he was about to cross would turn green soon. He sighed, and put the phone and buds back into his black bag he had on his shoulder. He looks up, and sees the walk sign turn white, and show a picture of a cartoon man walking, indicating that he could walk now. He hopped on his bike and rode off.

About 15 minutes later, he arrived at the _GameStop_. He locked his bike up near the bike rack, and took off his helmet, the cool Autumn breeze flowing through what was left of his hair. He ran up to the door of the store. There was no line, meaning everyone was already inside, buying a copy of the game. He might have been too late. He opened the doors, pushing his way past the huge groups of people. He got up to the counter, dug into his pockets, and slammed his money on the counter. "A copy of TerrorCards for the pc please!" He said, slightly out of breath from all the biking. The store clerk reached behind himself, pulled a copy of the game off the shelves, and put it on the counter. Devin grabbed the game's CD case, and the store clerk looked through the money, giving back change.

Devin raced back home, eager to try out his new game. He biked to the back of his house, and put his bike in the garage. He entered the home, greeted by the dog, whom his family named Butters. Butters leaped off the ground towards Devin, barking and licking his face. "Down boy, haha." Devin said, giggling. Butters wasn't a big dog, by any means, but he weighed quite a bit. Dan, Devin's stepdad, whistled. Butters ran towards the sound of Dan's whistle, and Dan started petting him. Dan was an incredibly tall man and skinny man. He grew up from a rough childhood in Texas, and developed many concerning conditions as a result. He had a luck of ability to feel hunger, so he could go whole days without eating and not realize or care. He also had really bad back muscles, and felt intense pain from his back at random times, so he sits on a pillow whenever he sits anywhere, to ease the pain. He also had a huge dislike to cheese.

But despite all his flaws, Devin liked him as a father because he shared Devin's love of all video games. He was also pretty smart when it came to strategy, and offered Devin much advice on how to use clever and cunning strategies in the games he played.

"Welcome home, Dev." Dan said as he pet Butters.

"Thanks. Can I go on the computer? Got a new game from the shop."

"I don't see why not. Have fun."

"Thanks, I will." Devin said as he walked up to the computer, turned it on, and started installing the game. While waiting for the game to finish downloading, Devin went on Steam and checked his group, The Scorpion Guild. The Scorpion Guild was a group Devin made to connect all his friends together to play games. Currently, it only has one member. A guy named Brayden, username: B_Boss. B_Boss had access to the beta for TerrorCards, so Devin knew from him that it must have been an amazing game. When the Scorpion Guild page loaded, there were no new join requests. As usual. Devin checked the game download progress. 100%. A button appeared to start playing the game. He put on his VR headset, and clicked play.

A black screen popped up. "Enter Username" said a siri voice. A keyboard popped up in front of Devin's view. He entered his name, same as always: Dscore20.

"Welcome to TerrorCards." The siri voice said, and Devin's character loaded in. He looked himself over. A customize character option popped up, and he made his character look like himself, except with less pimples and better hair. After clicking accept, a strange device appeared on his arm. It was a metallic half of a card game playing field, similar to the wrist card holder from Yu-Gi-Oh. A sudden thought then entered Devin's mind. _This had better not just be a rip-off of yu-gi-oh…_ Truth be told, Devin was not a fan of yu-gi-oh. The siri voice returned, this time sounding more human.

"Hello, and welcome to the tutorial simulation." A large green bar appeared on the hud below Dscore's vision. It had the words "HP: 20" next to it.

"This, is you health point meter. When it reaches zero, you will die. Your HP meter will increase when you level up. You also have a mana bar below your HP." Dscore noticed the blue bar barely visible under the green bar. The words "Mana: 1" shown next to the blue bar. Suddenly, a deck of card appeared on the wrist card holder, each card had the Terrorcards logo on the back of it. Dscore looked up from his wrist, and saw a gray figure step out of the darkness. It also had a wrist holder. The siri voice continued.

"Let's have a practice duel. The enter a duel with an enemy, simply say 'Let's duel!' as loud as you can. When a player declares a duel, both players have to accept the duel request." The gray figure in front of Dscore held up his card holder, and words popped up in Dscore's view. "Accept duel?" the options yes or no also appeared. Dscore clicked yes. The deck of cards on Dscore's wrist holder drew 3 cards into Dscore's view. The voice continued,

"In an event of player vs an enemy AI, the player will always go first. To play a card, you will need to spend mana. You max mana will increase as you level up, as well. Please look at your cards." Dscore did as told.

"There are two types of cards, minions and actions. Minions have an ATK and HP value, and actions do not." Dscore noticed a card in his hand, deadite zombie. It cost 1 mana, and had 2 ATK and 4 HP.

"To play a card, simply drag the card from your field of view onto your wrist guard." Dscore played the zombie in an empty space. It spent all his mana meter, because, after all, he only had 1 mana. A zombie appeared out of the ground, and stood up. Ready to fight.

"Minions cannot attack the same turn they are summoned, so please end your turn." Dscore noticed a yellow "End Turn" button on his wrist guard. He pressed it, and the enemy AI was quick to react. It summoned a deadite skeleton shieldmaster. A skeleton with a giant spiked shield. The siri voice continued, Dscore getting quite annoyed.

"There are several special effects in TerrorCards. The most common ones are Taunt, Charge, Battlecry, and Deathrattle. There are several other effects too. You can see them all in your in-game menu. This shieldmaster has taunt, meaning you have to attack them if you attack." Dscore waited, and the enemy AI ended their turn.

"To attack, simply tap the minion in play, and point to the target enemy minion." Devin did just that. He tapped his zombie, and pointed to the enemy skeleton. The zombie clawed at the shield, and the skeleton bashed the creature in the face, and it stumbled back. Text popped up above their heads.

"Dscore's deadite zombie did 2 damage to enemy AI's skeleton shieldmaster, and suffered 1 damage in return."

Devin noticed he had another card in his hand. An action, called Life Surge. He dragged it onto the deadite zombie, and it healed 3 HP form the creature. But since its max HP was 4, it only healed 1 HP., bringing it back up to full health. Dscore ended his turn, and the enemy AI used his shieldmaster, and it swung its shield at Dscore. He was knocked back, flat on his bum, dealing 1 damage. _That actually felt like it hurt_ … he though for a moment, then stood back up, not wondering why his cards hadn't spilled out onto the floor. He saw his HP bar go from 20, to 19.

It was his turn again. His mana went up to 2, now. And he cast an action on his zombie, roar of rage. It gave the minion +2 HP, and taunt. The zombie then attacked the shieldmaster, killing it.

The enemy AI did his turn. This time, they summoned a deadite skeleton jouster. A skeleton riding a horse while holding a giant lance. It had charge, so it could attack the same turn it was played. It did 3 damage to the zombie, injuring it badly, but the jouster only had 1 HP, and died instantly. The zombie had 3 HP left. Dscore's turn. He attacked the enemy AI directly, dealing 2 damage, and killing the enemy. The siri voice continued speaking.

"You can improve your deck by unlocking packs, and swapping out cards in your library for cards in your deck."

A world started loading in, forming green all around Dscore.

"This ends our tutorial program. Good luck, and have fun." The siri voice vanished, and Dscore finished loading into the world. His adventure had begun.


	2. Episode 2: Allies and Rivals

Dscore started looking through his menu. He was level 1, of course. He had a starter deck of 30 cards, with 25 commons and 5 rare cards. He had 20 HP, and 5 mana. He also had 20$ of in-game currency. Dscore closed his menu, took a deep breath, and stepped into town.

The Town of Beginnings sounded like a cheesy name for the first city in the game, but Dscore couldn't complain. The graphics and NPCs looked amazing. There were several players here as well, most people looking like beginners who had no idea what they were doing. Dscore started looking for his friend, B_Boss. Boss said he would show Dscore around, and teach him things the tutorial had "forgotten" to mention. Dscore looked all over the place, but saw no one with a gamertag of "B_Boss" above their heads. Dscore then turned around, and bumped into someone. He fell flat onto the hard stone.

"Oh, sorry bud." The tall, bulky man apologized.

"No problem." Dscore said, standing up, and noticed a crowd gathering in front of him.

"What's the huge line for?" Dscore asked. The man laughed, and said,

"New here, huh? Well, every Saturday, this guild comes into town, offering great deals on card trades." Dscore looked up ahead, and saw a shopping booth ahead of him. It was a cart run by some guy with the gamertag "Uncle Death". Dscore shrugged, and walked out of the line. He didn't have time to shop with what little money he had, for he had a friend to find.

He walked around for several minutes, eventually getting tired and annoyed. Suddenly, Dscore saw a purple streak across the sky. It looked like a shooting star, almost. Dscore then noticed the direction the streak headed towards. A tavern across the street. Dscore figured he might as well go in. He entered the tavern. It looked like a pretty simple place. There was a bar where people drank and talked, tables where people traded and played poker, and some slot machines where people could burn excess money. Dscore looked around, and finally saw him. B_Boss. His character looked much like his real self, a short and stubby kid somehow looking threatening under a black hoodie and deep voice. Boss was at the bar, talking with some girl with the username WalkinSharky. Dscore walked up to Boss, and said

"Heya. Where've you been?" Boss looked up at his long-old friend.

"I've been here waiting for you. Also, I found us a new friend." He said, pointing to the girl.

"Hi, I'm Sharky!" She said with an enthusiastic voice. She had red hair, with freckles covering her face. She was also wearing a shark hat.

"Alright, looks like we've got a party." Dscore said. Suddenly, the door to the tavern slammed open. Everyone turned to look up at the player. It was Uncle Death, from the trading booth. It was a guy wearing black robes and a skeleton mask with sunglasses. He looked like a modern-day grim reaper. He looked around the tavern, and said,

"Anyone here by the name of BBoss?" Boss turned away, and Dscore whispered,

"What the fuck did you do now?" Boss was always a bit of a troublemaker. Boss thought for a moment, then replied,

"I may have swiped a legendary card from the owner of the trading booth." Dscore facepalmed. Legendary was the highest card rank in the game. This Uncle Death guy must have been pissed.

"YOU!" Uncle death shouted from across the tavern, before dashing up into Boss's face. "You must have some nerve to steal from the Phoenix Guild...now gimme my card back, or we're gonna have some trouble here." Boss sighed, then replied,

"I don't have your card. I pawned it 'cause I already had one of it."

Uncle Death shouted, enraged, "Alright, we've got trouble then!" Two other men entered the tavern behind Uncle. They had card holders out and ready to fight. Sharky cowered behind Dscore, and Boss held up his wrist holder, as well. His holder was a more shiny blue color, with the letters B-T on the side of it. Indicating he was a beta tester. Death attached his holder as well, and declared,

"This is gonna be fun…"

"This isn't fair!" Dscore said, "It's 3 on 1." He bravely said, then pulled out his card holder, and stepped next to Boss. Sharky took a deep breath, and walked up next to Dscore, looking nervous. The enemy players held their arms up, beginning the duel.

Dscore gulped, and remembered he only had a starting deck.

DUEL START!

Dscore drew his starting hand. Well, more like it was drawn for him by the game. He saw he now had only 1 mana, out of his supposed 5.

"Mana charges as the duel progresses on, by the way." Boss said, noticing Dscore's confusion. Dscore didn't see anything he could play, so he ended his turn.

Uncle looked through his hand. Dscore saw he was level 40, and had 60 max HP, and started with 4 mana. Uncle played deadite skeleton shield master, costing 2 mana. Soon after, a skeleton rose out of the ground, holding a giant spiked shield. He had 4 HP, 1 ATK, and Taunt. Uncle also played an action, roar of rage, to give his shieldmaster +2 HP. He then ended his turn. Boss drew his hand. Dscore saw Boss was level 19, and Sharky was level 4. Boss played a deadite skeleton jouster. It had charge, so it attacked right away. The skeleton rode on his horse, ramming his lance into the other skeleton's shield, but the enemy slammed its shield into the Jouster's face, knocking him off his horse and killing him. Shield master suffered 3 damage, half of his health.

The bodyguard to the left of Uncle drew his cards, and played life surge on the teammate's shield master. A green aura surrounded the skeleton, and restored all 3 lost HP.

Sharky couldn't do anything, and ended her turn.

The bodyguard to Uncle's right played an action, evil's might. It gave the ally skeleton +2 ATK.

Finally, play rotated to Dscore. He drew a card named "Pumpkinhead". He never saw the movie, but it was a pretty powerful card, and a rare. There was still nothing he could do with 2 mana, so he ended his turn. Uncle chuckled. He had this in the bag, and he summoned a deadite skeleton jouster. The skeleton rode on his horse and the other skeleton raised his shield in a battlecry, as the two ran into Dscore and slammed their weapons into him. He fell to the ground, taking 7 damage. Dscore struggled to his feet from the powerful attack, and play rotated to BBoss. He drew a card and summoned Chucky. A small, tattered doll appeared from the ceiling, and fell to the ground, doing a flip on the way down. Chucky has 3 ATK and 4 HP, plus dodge and taunt. I looked up what dodge meant, and it meant that during enemy player's turns Chucky could dodge one attack. Boss then played an action called Charge on Chucky, giving him the charge ability so he could attack right away, and +2 ATK. Chucky curled up into a ball, and rolled towards the shieldmaster while letting out a sinister cackle. He jumped up to the skeleton's head, and sliced at the skeleton's neck. Or, at least, where its neck should be. It dealt 5 damage, and left it with only 1 HP remaining, before the skeleton moved its shield upwards, launching Chucky across the room, and he landed back down on his feet, in Boss's side of the field.

The bodyguard to the left of Uncle chuckled, and said,

"I'm sorry, but, we don't like our only defense being at one health." He played two life surge cards, restoring the shieldmaster to full health. The shieldmaster and jouster began to charge, and ran into Chucky. Chucky stood his ground, jumped up, and stabbed the jouster off his horse, but the shieldmaster slammed his shield into Chucky, and killed him. The minion disappeared in a cloud of dust and ashes. It became apparent that ally minions could attack during any ally player's turn as well as their owner's.

Dscore, Boss and Sharky began to sweat. None of the enemies were injured, and they kept buffing a single shieldmaster with taunt, and they had no minions on the field anymore. Boss looked at Sharky and Dscore.

"Give up yet?" Uncle Death taunted them. Boss sighed and said,

"Fine, here's your card back…" Boss then threw the golden card across the room, and Uncle Death caught it. He looked relieved, and pressed the dull white button labelled Surrender. The minions and the field disappeared, as the match ended.


End file.
